Festival of the Flower Queen

On Tuesday evening, August 14, 1860, a performance of the Festival of the Flower Queen was held at Norman Hall, under the direction of Professor A.B. Chase of Cleveland, Ohio; he had directed productions of the same play in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1858, and in Cleveland in 1859.

The musical performance featured seventy five young ladies from the Sandusky area, all appearing in beautiful costumes which represented different flowers. Featured performers were: Josephine Chapman, Sarah Parish, Kate Burton, Sarah Monroe, Amelia Brainard, Nettie Wetherell, Alice Hard, Fanny Barney, Alice Porter, Jennie McGee, Lina Mills, Kate Monroe, and Miss Sallie Reber. The theme of the musical was that the flowers were meeting in a dell in order to choose their queen. A recluse, played by Professor Chase, was discontented with life. In song, the flowers told the recluse about love and duty, and by end of the performance he was ready to return to society among his fellow creatures.

The August 15, 1860 issue of the Sandusky Daily Commercial Register reported that the performance at Norman Hall was a “a most decided success in every way.” The article stated that the Daisy, who was played by Sallie Reber, was coaxed into an encore song; she would later go on to be a popular performer with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in New York. 

Sandusky City Schools Report Card from 1848-1849

This  report card from  the arithmetic class of Miss L. A. Barney  for the term that met December 4, 1848 to March 17, 1849 was given to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center by the Dean family. Miss Barney was a teacher in the Grammar School department of Sandusky City Schools.  

Names of the boys in the class were: Samuel Belford, John Dean, Benjamin Gregg, Robert Matthews, John Monroe, Christopher Mores, Max Rhobacher, James Van Fleet, and Joshua Watson. The young ladies in the class were: Mary Clarkson, Eliza Fisher, Margaret Garvey, Sarah Jane Jenks, Sarah Stephens, Sarah Willston, and Sarah Withington. Beside each student’s name were “exceptions to morals” in several catagories, and  the number learned for preliminary defitions, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. At the bottom of the report card were the signatures of Miss L.A. Barney, teacher, and M.F. Cowdery, superintendent of schools. 

M.F. Cowdery was the first superintendent of schools in Sandusky, serving in that capacity until 1871. He wrote a history of Sandusky City Schools, entitled Local School history of the City of Sandusky, from 1838 to1871 Inclusive, published by the Journal Steam Printing House in February 1876. A copy of this brief history is found in the Schools Collection of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. In the early history of Sandusky Schools, Mr. Cowdery recalled that before school buildings were built, classrooms were rented in the Methodist Chapel, Presbyterian Church, Grace Church, and a brick building in the Western Liberties. 

In February of 1844, a committee consisting of Moors Farwell, Alexander Porter, and Zenas Barker, voted in favor of purchasing lots near the East and West Markets, and one in the Western Liberties as the sites of school buildings. A high school building was to be erected on the public square. The Academy building, pictured below, was originally built on the east public square as the high school, but was also used as an early Courthouse for Erie County prior to the construction of the new high school in 1869 and the Courthouse in 1874.

M.F. Cowdery was still serving as superintendent of Sandusky City Schools when the new high school building opened in 1869.

James Monroe (1821-1898), Reformer and Abolitionist

James Monroe was born in 1821 in Connecticut to Quaker parents. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1846, and he earned his theology degree from Oberlin College in 1849. Monroe taught at Oberlin College from 1849 to 1862. From 1856 to 1859, he served in the Ohio House of Representatives, and was in the Ohio Senate from 1860 to 1862. From March 1871 to March 1881, James Monroe was a Representative to the United States Congress. According to the book James Monroe: Oberlin's Christian Statesman and Reformer, 1821-1898, he was a minister in Sandusky, Ohio during the winter of 1848-1849. 

James Monroe was known for his strong abolitionist views. His former home can be toured in Oberlin, Ohio, where the story of his abolition activities is told. Mrs. John Mack donated the portrait of Professor Monroe to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center. Sandusky had many ties to Oberlin throughout the years. Former Sandusky resident, Francis Drake Parish was a trustee of Oberlin College from 1839 to 1878, and longtime newspaper editor, I.F. Mack was a graduate of Oberlin College.